Intended AudienceDAQ product users who must decide how to connect analog input signals to optimize the performance of their DAQ device.

Recommended Wiring Configurations
Building upon the information provided in TechTip: Basic Analog Signal Connections (Part 1), all possible grounding and input type combinations are summarized in the table below, along with MCC-recommended uses.

On MCC AI DAQ devices, both digital grounds (GND) and analog grounds (AGND) are tied directly to the PC common ground. Unless you have a high-current return connected to one of the grounds on a device, you should connect your signals to AGND.

Ground high-current lines to GND and analog inputs to the low-current AGND line. This distinction prevents high current on the ground for your analog input signals from introducing error into the voltage measurements. Since GND and AGND have different paths to PC common ground, current on the GND line has little or no effect on the AGND line, and the accuracy of measurements of analog input signals grounded to AGND are not affected.

Common Ground / Single-Ended Inputs

MCC recommends using a single-ended configuration for the common ground scenario. However, if only some input channels/channel pairs are common ground, we recommend using the differential mode for all inputs. Figure 1 shows the recommended connections for a common ground/single-ended input system.

Common Mode Voltage < ±10 V / Single-Ended Inputs
The phrase common mode has no meaning in a single-ended configuration. A single-ended configuration with common mode voltage is a system with offset grounds, and MCC does not recommend this configuration. However, if your application requires the increased number of channels in a single-ended configuration and the common mode voltage is small, no system damage should occur. Depending on the overall accuracy you need, you may receive acceptable results.

Common Mode Voltage < ±10 V / Differential Inputs
MCC recommends using a differential configuration to monitor systems with varying ground potentials. Make sure that the common mode voltage – which is the sum of the input signal and the ground differential – does not exceed the common mode range of the AI DAQ device (usually ±10 V).

Most MCC devices cannot directly monitor signals with common mode voltages greater than ±10 V, but you can adjust for this limitation by changing the system ground configuration to reduce the overall common mode voltage, or by adding isolated signal conditioning between the source and the device (see Figure 4 and Figure 5).

Common Mode Voltage > ±10 V / Single-Ended Inputs

Figure 4. System with a common mode voltage > ±10 V connected to a single-ended input

Common Mode Voltage > ±10 V / Differential Inputs

Figure 5. System with a common mode voltage > ±10 V connected to a differential input

Isolated Grounds / Single-Ended Inputs
Using single-ended inputs is acceptable for monitoring isolated inputs, although using differential mode increases system immunity to noise. Figure 6 shows the recommended connections in this configuration.

Figure 6. Isolated signal source connected to single-ended input

Isolated Grounds / Differential Inputs
For the best performance with isolated signal sources, MCC recommends using a differential input configuration. Figure 7 shows the recommended connections for this configuration.

Figure 7. Isolated signal source connected to differential input

More Information
Please contact Measurement Computing Corporation if you have any questions or if you would like any further information.